Hair is not just an organ important for beauty or merely a sign of good health, but it also functions to protect the body from heat and cold, shield against sunlight which causes skin cancer, and prevent insects.
Did you know… we are born with more than one hundred thousand hairs, and the highest number of hair follicles is at birth. As we age, the hair follicle cells gradually decrease.
Hair Formation
Our hair is made from ‘hair follicle cells’ located about 1-2 millimeters deep under the scalp. These cells produce the hair shaft and the outer layer of the hair. In the hair follicle area, there are pigment-producing cells. Asians typically have black or dark brown hair because of a pigment called ‘eumelanin’, which is dark in color. People with blonde hair have less eumelanin and have a lighter pigment called ‘pheomelanin’.
These pigment-producing cells, like other cells in the body, undergo degeneration, slow down in function, or die, and new cells are produced to replace them. However, some factors may cause these cells to degenerate faster than normal or, when the cells die, no new cells replace them, resulting in a condition called ‘gray hair’.
Moreover, people of different ethnicities start to develop gray hair at different ages. On average, Asians begin to have gray hair before the age of 40, while Caucasians tend to develop gray hair earlier, around the age of 35. This suggests that genetics play an important role in premature graying.
Among those with premature gray hair, it is often found that their parents have the same issue. In males, gray hair usually appears at the temples and forehead first, then spreads to the crown, with less gray hair at the nape. In females, gray hair typically starts at the hairline before other areas.
Causes That Accelerate Gray Hair
Besides the natural characteristics of hair, there are other causes or factors that accelerate gray hair, such as:
- Smoking, which produces free radicals that directly damage cells
- Alcohol consumption
- Various medications
- Underlying diseases including Graves’ disease, atopic dermatitis, immune system disorders, vitamin B12 deficiency anemia, chronic kidney disease, and certain skin diseases such as vitiligo. Vitiligo causes depigmentation of the skin in affected areas, which appear pale and white, and the hair in those areas often turns gray as well
- Severe nutritional deficiencies, including protein deficiency, severe iron deficiency, and copper deficiency
Finding gray hair at a young age does not predict how quickly gray hair will spread across the scalp. Some people have 10-20 gray hairs since childhood and maintain that amount into adulthood, while others start gray hair later but progress rapidly and have a large amount of gray hair in a short time. Although gray hair is harder to style and coarser than pigmented hair, the advantage of gray hair is that it often has a thicker diameter and can grow longer than normal hair, making hair appear fuller. Additionally, white facial hair such as beards can grow up to four times longer than normal pigmented facial hair.
Currently, there is no safe and permanent treatment for gray hair, but some medications are being tested. When the medication is stopped, the hair returns to gray as before. Doctors usually recommend avoiding factors that may stimulate more gray hair, such as smoking, alcohol consumption, and avoiding prolonged severe stress, which not only causes gray hair and hair thinning but also contributes to many other diseases.
Hair coloring, both temporary and permanent, to cover gray hair has not been found to directly cause gray hair.
